Srinagar, April 10: The Jammu and Kashmir High Court has termed the denial of passport on grounds that a person’s relatives have migrated to Azad Kashmir as unwarranted and unjustified, directing the authorities to issue full-term passports to a retired government employee and his wife within six weeks.

The High Court while dismissing the objections made by authorities, directed that full-term passports be issued to a couple, who was being denied passports on the basis of a police report that the man’s nephew had crossed over to Azad Kashmir.

Justice MK Hanjura said that if a person’s relative had crossed over to Azad Kashmir, “it does not mean that the person is liable for punishment, especially when nothing adverse is in the records against him.”

On the premise that the nephew of petitioner Abdul Samad Wani, a retired government employee, had migrated to Azad Kashmir in 2004, the local administration had declined to recommend full-term passports in favour of the petitioner and his wife, the court observed.

The High Court had ruled in this case that any act on the part of the petitioner’s son cannot be used against the petitioner to affect his right to seek passport, when nothing has been attributed by the authorities about the petitioner likely to engage himself in any such activity which may attract any one or the other conditions indicated in Section 6 of the Passport Act 1967, disentitling him to issuance of passport. It also observed that refusal of passport on the report of the administration cannot sustain and is unjustified.

In the latest case, Abdul Samad Wani and his wife were issued passports in the year 2013. Thereafter, the passports were extended up to January 2017. After that, the regime refused to recommend full-term passports, which forced the petitioners to knock the doors of the High Court.